Chapter 371: Appearances Can Be Deceiving

Once his meeting with Joseph ended, Mark gathered his wives to bring them up to speed on the proposal.

Ely was the first to make it clear she couldn’t stand that man, and half the room agreed with her.

Rose said he had the face of someone who’d sell his own mother for the right price.

Aria pointed out, with far less tact than usual, that she wouldn’t trust him to look after a flowerpot.

But when they finally stopped ranting about Joseph and began talking about what he had said, the mood shifted.

Because, no matter how much none of them could stomach him, his logic was hard to refute.

Emilia reminded them that the Church had spent generations persecuting the elves and calling them abominations, while Ely and Alice confirmed that the same mentality remained deeply rooted in both the Church and the Inquisition.

If both institutions managed to impose themselves on the human kingdoms, nothing guaranteed the crusade would end there; in fact, the two of them considered it far more likely that the next target would be precisely the non-human races.

Faced with that, nobody could deny that Joseph had raised a real danger.

So by the next morning, Mark already had an answer for him.

Joseph had asked to talk in the royal garden because, according to him, after so many days Mark hadn’t fully believed it.

The fountain was still in pieces, the soil of several flower beds was still churned up, and a few elven gardeners worked in the back, trying to repair the mess with long faces.

If the servants had already started talking about the attack, it was quite likely Joseph wanted to see the place for himself.

And, from the way he swept his eyes over every bit of damage, Mark suspected he had guessed right.

Even so, Joseph said nothing.

“I’ve considered your proposal,” Mark said as he walked beside Joseph through the garden. “I’ll accept it.”

Joseph stopped and looked at him with a satisfaction that was hard to hide.

“I’m glad to hear that. I knew you were a reasonable man.”

“However, there is an important limitation,” Mark confessed. “I can provide food, mana stones, and even dwarf-made weapons if necessary, but I’m in no position to send troops… At least, not for now.”

Joseph looked at him, somewhat taken aback.

“May I ask why?”

Mark ended up explaining the problem.

To maintain stability in the empire, one of the first decisions had been to dismantle the old racial armies.

After centuries of killing each other, leaving each people with its own armed force didn’t seem like the best way to build a stable nation.

So a good portion of those men ended up doing something else.

City guards, road patrols, or market watchmen.

They still carried weapons, but now they used them to break up fights instead of starting them.

And, surprisingly, it had worked.

But that also meant that, at the moment, the south had nothing resembling an organized army.

And rebuilding one would take time.

“I see…,” Joseph raised a hand to his chin, thoughtful. “To be honest, I never expected this alliance to begin with your troops marching toward Eldia. Right now, I need something far more important.”

“And that is…?”

“Credibility.”

Joseph resumed his stroll, hands clasped behind his back.

“When I return to Eldia, I’ll have to defend this agreement before my court. Many nobles will think I’m exaggerating the Church’s threat, others will side with me, and some will simply oppose it because they hate non-humans.”

His expression hardened slightly.

“So I’ll need to prove I haven’t crossed half a continent only to come back with an empty promise from a necromancer most of them know only by name.”

“Joseph, get to the point.”

The emperor sighed.

“I want one of your strongest subordinates to come with me. Someone who can represent you before my nobles and who, merely by appearing, shows that this is serious.”

Mark considered it for a few seconds.

“I can do that.”

He closed his eyes and activated the mental link.

‘Bayle, please come to the royal garden. There’s someone who wants to meet you.’

‘As you command, my lord.’

The answer was immediate and the wait brief.

One of the doors leading to the garden opened shortly afterward, and an enormous silhouette appeared in the doorway, forced to lower its head to pass.

He stood nearly two and a half meters tall, wore a shabby-looking black suit, and carried his wings folded against his back, while a long tail swayed slowly behind him.

The gardeners stopped working the moment they saw him pass.

Bayle reached them, bowed his head to Mark, and then offered an equally respectful bow to Joseph.

“It is an honor to meet you, Emperor of Eldia. My name is Bayle, and I am a humble servant of the Death Emperor.”

Joseph studied him uncomfortably for a moment before answering, and although he tried to hide it, his gaze lingered too long on the scales of Bayle’s face and forearms.

“The honor is mine, Mr. Bayle.”

Then he turned slightly toward Mark.

“Emperor… I hope I don’t sound offensive, but when you mentioned one of your strongest subordinates, I thought you meant someone else.”

“Who were you expecting?”

“Someone like the former Grand Inquisitor or the Great Knight of Dawn,” Joseph admitted. “Their names already carry weight in the human kingdoms. If one of them walked into court with me, a good part of my work would be done before I opened my mouth.”

“I’m sorry, but neither of them is going to Eldia.”

Joseph accepted the answer with a slight nod, though his gaze went back to Bayle.

“I understand, though I must be honest… I find it hard to imagine Mr. Bayle making the same impression on my nobles that Alice or Elyndra would.”

Bayle remained silent and turned his eyes to Mark.

“Bayle.”

“Yes, my lord?”

“Would you mind clearing up the emperor’s doubts?”

“It will be a pleasure.”

Then Bayle turned around, walked to the center of the garden, where the lawn was widest, and stopped beside the remains of the fountain.

The gardeners, who had been watching him out of the corner of their eyes the whole time, suddenly understood what was about to happen and ran off in every direction.

“Transmutation.”

Bayle’s body began to emit a light so intense that Joseph had to raise his arm to shield his eyes.

The glow expanded all at once and, in the next instant, the garden floor shook beneath a colossal weight.

The paving stones cracked, the flower beds the gardeners had just repaired were reduced to nothing, and a wave of hot air lashed the entire garden, tearing the cape from Joseph’s shoulders.

When the light finally faded, Joseph slowly lowered his arm, and where Bayle had stood there was now a dragon filling the whole royal garden.

Its body was covered in dark, scar-lined scales, its folded wings rose above the walls, and its tail coiled around what remained of the fountain.

Bayle slowly lowered his head until one of his eyes was level with Joseph, and two columns of smoke escaped his nostrils.

“Is this better, Emperor?” Bayle asked, in a voice so deep it made the ground vibrate beneath their feet.

Joseph tried to answer, but the words wouldn’t come. He took a step back, then another, until he bumped into Mark.

“By the goddess…”